I'm a beginner at Astrophotography. I have an 8" Meade LX50, an SLR camera,
adapters, etc. Here's my problem: I can find the objects with an eyepiece,
but when I switch to the camera, I have to refocus, which isn't easy due to
the dim objects in a dim viewfinder, so I slew to a nearby bright star,
focus, then I can't find the damn object again. Tonight for instance, I
tried the hercules cluster, and the ring nebula, both of which I found very
easily with the eyepiece. When I switched to the camera, I refocused on a
nearby star, then couldn't find the objects again. I have a telrad and a
standard finder. Do any of you have any tips or tricks for doing this? I
will be buying an off-axis guider and reticle soon, but cash is a bit tight
right now, and there has to be a better way than this. I tried to pull the
eyepiece away manually, but it gets worse. I put a barlow in front of the
prism, and if I hold a super plossl about 3 inches away from the prism
opening, I can sorta get the images in focus, but that's ridiculous, and try
to slew and hold an eyepiece like this. DSOs are really tough!
By the way, I have some really nice pictures of the moon, sun and Jupiter.
:)

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